Posted in: Restaurant Business
10 Of The Most Laughable Customer Complaints
The customer is always right. Or, is she?
We’re sure you’ve heard some great customer complaints at one time or another in your restaurant.
For this article, we decided to cull the Internet for 10 of the most laughable customer complaints.
The food industry is often unforgiving, and you know customers sometimes have unrealistic expectations – we highlight the hilarious ones here.
#1: Spelling Their Problem in Ketchup
Customer service is an integral part of your restaurant, and when it goes awry, some customers may take matters into their own hands. (tweet this)
Customers at one restaurant waited 30 minutes to be served. Frustrated, they used what they had at their disposal to convey their anger.
Written in ketchup and underlined in mustard, they wrote their complaint out for all to see: “We waited 30 minutes, no service.”
While it isn’t funny for a customer to be left waiting like it, we do think their choice of message humorous and clever.
#2: A Husband for One
This unhappy customer left a note on the receipt for her server. It said, “He’s my husband! Find your own! Good luck!”
The woman left this comment, along with a smiling, winking face, to her waitress who obviously paid too much attention to the customer’s husband.
Well, the waitress posted the receipt on Facebook as well as a letter to the customer. The post went viral, the customer retaliated, and the whole thing turned into a “she said, she said.”
Words were bantered about concerning husbands, poor service and jealousy.
This fight surely turned personal, and we can’t help but wonder how the husband felt during the long conversation.
#3: The Upside Down Pizza Box
This story is definitely laughable as it involves a high level of stupidity.
A guy ordered a pizza and had it delivered to his house. It arrived on time, just like promised.
Yet, when he opened the pizza box, he was instantly unhappy because it wasn’t what he ordered. There were no toppings, cheese or sauce. It was just bread.
Really?
This disgruntled customer hit Twitter to complain, and the pizza company apologized for the mistake.
Yet, it appears they hadn’t really made one.
This smart customer had opened the pizza box from the bottom!
#4: Ice, Ice, Baby
It seems that some customers are driven by their need for ice.
One time a man visited a restaurant with his family on Thanksgiving. He sat down, pointed at his glass of ice water, screaming, “Ice,” at the server.
The server nodded with understanding that he was right, there was ice in his water.
The man continued to point and holler, “Ice.” The server finally learned from the man’s spouse that what he wanted was a glass of plain ice.
When the kind-hearted server returned, the man suddenly found whole sentences with which to berate his server for not reading his mind.
Provide great customer service to fill your tables.
#5: Gluten – Not for Me
This laughable customer moment involves gluten, but in a most unique way.
A brick oven pizza restaurant had a big open kitchen with an obviously visible oven.
When a customer walked in, she demanded not to sit next to the oven because she was allergic to gluten. It appears she thought that by sitting next to the oven, the “essence” of the gluten coming from the ovens would cause her problems.
The hostess did her best to accommodate the woman. Even though none of the tables were right next to the oven, the woman wanted to be as far away as possible.
We are left to wonder if the “aroma” of the gluten affected her.
#6: Filthy Counters – Not Really
Just imagine a woman walks in and demands a frozen drink with a different kind of lid then your restaurant normally provides. To be accommodating, you agree.
In the middle of making the drink, your co-worker asks you a question, and you answer.
Then, the customer yells at you to do your job.
Which, you, of course, continue to do. While doing so, you put both types of lid on the counter because you actually need one of them to make the drink.
When you serve the drink, the customer loses it and screams at you for placing the lid on the filthy counters.
Well, this actually did happen, but there’s more to the story.
The customer went on to scream at the barista, accusing her of never bathing or washing her clothes.
Unbelievably, the woman grabbed her drink and informed the employee she wasn’t going to pay for the drink because the employee was disgusting.
The employee didn’t let her get away with it, grabbed the drink and threw it away.
This disgruntled customer walked off while screaming she’d get even with the barista.
#7: An Excellent Bottle
In one restaurant, a diner ordered a bottle of champagne that was listed as “excellent” on the menu.
The diner drank all but one glass left in the bottle and sent it back for a full refund.
Apparently, it wasn’t as excellent as he thought.
#8: Too Short Noodles
In another restaurant, a guest ordered spaghetti and then complains about it to his server.
When asked what was wrong, the man said it tasted great, and the portion size was perfect, but the spaghetti was too short.
He wanted shorter spaghetti, something more like chicken soup noodles.
That certainly ruins the whole twist-the-spaghetti-around-the-fork aspect.
#9: Plain, Or Not So Plain
A customer walked back to the counter at an airport Burger King, furious. He nearly threw his sandwich and receipt at the counter.
Angrily, he told the cashier he messed up the order.
The Burger King employee looked at the ticket and informed the man that he ordered his sandwich plain, and that’s what he’d gotten.
The customer continued to complain by pointing to the picture on the display menu. He wanted to know why his burger didn’t have all the fixings on it like in the photo.
He was looking for the lettuce, tomatoes, etc. that was shown in the picture.
The Burger King employee kindly asked him if he’d wanted those items on the side.
The man said he wanted them on his sandwich because that’s what the burger was supposed to come with.
The employee, said, “You ordered it plain.”
The customer, getting testier, told the employee that he did indeed want it “plain,” just like the picture.
The very frustrated Burger King employee informed the customer that plain doesn’t mean with all the toppings.
While laughable, we’re sure this was a exasperating interchange!
#10: The Mistaken Vegetarian
One woman ordered Chicken Parmesan. When she received her order, she took a bite, and then asked the server if there was really chicken in it.
The server told her, “Yes, of course there is.”
The woman broke down crying because she was a vegetarian. She then asked to see the manager.
One wonders just what she read on that menu!
Final Thoughts
There you have it – 10 of the most laughable customer complaints.
It seems that you can’t please everyone all the time, and on occasion, there’s nothing you can do to prevent irrational out-of-control customers! (tweet this)
We do, however, always advocate for great customer service.
Have you heard some laughable customer complaints in your restaurant? We’d love to hear them. Please share them with us and our readers below!
Images: Seth Doyle and Alex Holyoake
10 Most Important Questions To Ask in A Restaurant Survey 
8 Things You Can Do To Help Manage Food Costs 
5 Things Startup Restaurants Typically Overspend On 
5 Ways to Deliver Excellent Customer Service at Your Restaurant 
7 Surprisingly Common Problems That Restaurants Face 
We are a bbq restaurant.
I once received a call from a women who had picked up a full rack of ribs, and was calling to inform me that there were bones in her rack and this was unacceptable as far as she was concerned.